The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-10-24
SUNSET AND SALVATION
REV. TALMAGE TAKES A TEXT
FROM PAUIS EPISTLE.

BROOKLYN, Oct 23.-The Rev. T. De
Witt Talmage, D. D., preached in the Brook
lyn Tabernacle this morning on the subject,
forgiveness Before Shutdown" After ex-
planning some passages concerning Heze
kiah, DR.. Talmage gave out the following
hymn, which was sung by the congregation;
''This glorious hope revives
Our courage by the way,
While each in expectation lives
And longs to see the day"
Prof. Henry Eyre Browne rendered on
the organ an aria with variations, by
Cramer. The text of the sermon was from
Ephesians iv. 25: "Let not the sun go
down upon your wrath" DR.. Talmage said:
What a pillow embroidered of all coors
hath the dying day. The cradle of clouds
from which the sun rises is beautiful
enough, but it is surpassed by the many
colored mausoleum in which at evening it is
buried. Sunset among the mountains
1t almost takes ones breath away to recall
the scene. The long shadows stretching
over the plain make the glory of the de-
parting light, on the tip-top crags and
struck aslant through the foliage, the more
transpicuous. Saffron and gold, purple and
cloud in confagration. Burning Moscows
on the sky. Hanging gardens of roses at
their deepest blush. Banners of vapor, red
as if from carnage, in the battle of the ele
ments. The hunter among the Adiron-
dacbs, and the Swiss villager among the
Alps know what is a sunset among the
mountains. After storm at sea
the rolling grandeur into which the sun
goes down to bathe at nightfall is something
to make weird and splendid dreams out OF
for a lifetime. Alexander Smith in his
poem compares the sunset to 1.-THE barren
beach of hell, but this wonderful spectacle
of nature makes me think of the FURNISHED
wall of heaven. Paul in prison writing my
text remembers some of the gorgeous sun
sets among the mountains of Asia Minor,
and how he had often seen the towers Of
Damascus blaze in the close of the Oriental
days, and he flashes out that memory in the
text when he says: "Let not the sun go
down upon your wrath"
Sublime and all-suggestive duty for peo-
pie then and people now. Forgiveness be-
fore sundown. He who never feels the
throb of indignation is imbecile. He who
can walk among the injuStices of the world,
inflicted upon himself and others, without
flush of cheek, or flush of eye, or agitation
of nature is either in sympathy with wrong
or semi-idiotic. When Ananias, the high
priest, ordered the constables of the court
room to smite Paul in the mouth, Paul fired
up and said: "God shall smite thee, thou
whited wall" In the sentence Immediately
before my text Paul commands the Ephe-
slams: "Be We angry and sin not" 1t all
depends on what you are mad at, and how
long the feeling lasts whether anger is right
or wrong. Life is full of exasperations.
Saul after David, Succoth after Gideon,
Korah after Moses, the Pasquins after Au-
gulstus, the Pharisees after Christ, and every
one has had his pursuers, and we are
swlndled, or belied, or misrepresen-
ted, or persecuted in or some way
wronged, and the danger is that healthful
indignation shall become baleful spite, and
that our feelings settle down into a pro-
longed outpouring of temper, displeasing to
God and ruinous to ourselves, and hence the
important injunction of the text: 'Let not
the sun go down upon your wrath Why
that limitation to ones anger Why that
period of flaming vapor set to punctuate a
flaming d sposition What has the sunset
got to do with ones resentful emotions
Was it a haphazard sentiment written by
Paul without special significance No, no;
| think of five reasons why we should not
let the sun set before our temper sets.
First Because twelve hours is long
enough to be cross about any wrong in
flicted upon us. Nothing is SO exhausting
to physical health or mental faculty as a
protracted indulgence of ill-humor. 1t
racks the nervous system. 1t hurts the di-
gestion. 1t heats the blood in brain and
heart until the whole body is first over
heated and then depressed. Beside that,
it sours the disposition, turns one aside
from his legitimate work, expends energies
that ought to be better employed, and does
us more harm than it does our antagonist.
Paul gives us a good, wide allowance of
time for legitimate denunciation, from six
O'Clock to six o'clock, but says: "Stop
therel" Watch the descending orb of day,
and when it reaches the horizon take reef
in your disposition. Unloose your collar
and cool off. Change the subject to some
thing delightfully."- pleasant. Unroll your
tight fist and shake hands With some one.
Bank up the fires at the curfew bell. Drive
the growing dog of enmity back to its ken
mel. The hours of this morning will pass
by, and the afternoon will arrive, and the
sun will begin to set, and beg you on its
blazing hearth throw all your feuds, invec-
tives and satires
Other things being equal, the man who
preserves good temper will come out ahead.
An old essayist says that the celebrated
John Henderson, of Bristol, England was
at dining party where political excite
ment ran high, and the debate got angry,
and while Henderson was speaking, bis OPP
ponent, unable to answer his argument,
dashed glass of wine in his face, when the
speaker deliberately wiped the liquid from
his face and said: This, sir, is depression;
now, if you please, for the main argument"
While worldly philosophy could help but
very few to such equipose of spirit, the
grace of God could help any man TO such
triumph Impossible" you say, 81 would
have either left the table in anger. or have
knocked the man down" But have come
to believe that nothing is impossible, if God
help, since what | saw at Beth
Shan faith cure in London, England,
two summers ago. While the religious
service was going on Rev. DR.. Boardman,
glorious mani since gone to his heavenly
rest, was telling the scores of sick people
present that Christ was there as OF old to
heal all diseases, and that If they would
only believe, their sickness would depart.
/ saw a woman near me, with hand and arm
twisted of rheumatism, and her wrist was
fiery with Inflammation, and il looked like
those cases of chronic rheumatism which
we have all seen and sympathized with
cases beyond all human healing At the
preachers reiteration of the words "Will
you believel Do you believe. Do you be-
lieve nowl' l heard this poor sick woman
say, with an emphasis which sounded
through the building: II do believe And
then she laid her twisted arm and hand out
as straight as your arm and hand, or mine.
If ! had seen one rise from the dead,
would not have been much more thrilled.
Since then | believe that God will do any
thing in answer to our prayer and in answer
TO our faith, and He can heal our
bodies, and if our soul is all twisted
and misshapen of revenge and hate
and infamed with sinful proclivlty, He